Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 5th, 11:40am By Eli George

A week after his 83rd birthday and on the eve of a new year, Michael Goldberg collapsed in his Manhattan studio. He died of a heart attack and the world lost one of the few remaining survivors of the New York School and a major abstract expressionist painter. What’s nice about being an artist is that even when you are gone, your work lives on forever. Bringing this influential artist to Buffalo is the UB Anderson Gallery. They are presenting a memorial exhibit entitled “Ode to Michael Goldberg: Selective Thievery and the Practice of Looking.”

Goldberg (1924-2007) was known for his large-scale abstract paintings. The gallery has managed to gather an impressive number of them together to display the breadth of his work that spanned more than 60 years. Works from the University’s collection, loans from several private collections, and loans from public institutions are making this exhibit possible. Many of the work in the collection has never been shown publicly, or if it has, it’s been a number of years since it was viewable.

































Picture: Rout of San Romano, 1966, courtesy of UB Art Galleries: Gift of the David K. Anderson Family, 2000

The artwork, which includes drawings, paintings, and prints, spans between the 1940s to the 1980s. It shows the beginnings of Goldberg’s work with his early cubist inspired drawings of the 40s, the monumental nonobjective paintings he did in the early 60s, the abstracted landscape and still-lifes he created from the mid-to-late 60s, his monochromatic paintings of the 70s, and it ends with his use of grids in the 80s.

As impressive as the volume of work Goldberg created in his long career is the way he influenced art. He took inspiration from a variety of sources, always determined to push abstraction to the next level. Goldberg helped form part of what came to be known as the New York School. The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians who lived and worked in NYC in the 50s and 60s. This group of highly influential artists and writers left a significant mark on art, to the point where the name “New York School” has become synonymous as abstract expressionist painting.


































Picture: The Bed, 1963, courtesy of UB Art Galleries: Promised Gift of the David K. Anderson

The exhibition shows Goldberg’s involvement with this movement by including collaborations between Goldberg and the well-known New York School poets Frank O’Hara and Bill Berkson. Goldberg associated with Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, and Normal Bluhm, who were also members of the New York School, and the gallery will include some of their work with this exhibition. There is also a catalogue of essays by Amber Smith and Klaus Kertess, who was Goldberg’s close friend and curator. The essays provide insight into the artist’s career as well as a fresh look at the artist’s symbiotic relationship with his dealer, Martha Jackson.

UB Anderson Gallery is located at One Martha Jackson Place near Englewood and Kenmore. They will hold a public reception on Saturday, September 13th, from 6:30 until 8:30 PM in honor of the opening of this exhibition, which will be viewable until January 18, 2009. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 AM till 5 PM, and Sunday, 1 PM until 5 PM. For more information, you can visit their website or call 829-3754.

Picture with this post: Flowers and Trees, 1965, courtesy of Knoedler & Company, NY